1000 words
by moonstarsango
Summary: AU One-shot. All she wanted was for him to come back.


Hiiii! So this is just a little idea that popped into my head while I was listening to '1000 words' from FFX-2 and 'Zanarkand' from FFX. Plus, it's also a distraction from the disaster that is 'The Miserable' right now….I'm in such a rut. I have a slight idea of how to fix chapter three and not make it as HORRIBLE as it stands, but I want to work throught it more and have to find my notebook I was using for that story and my other ideas ….luckily I had another one for this one.

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1000 words

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One, two, three. Two, two, three. The counts flowed consistently through her head as her body moved gracefully across the floor. She had once again gotten the practice room all to herself, the way she liked it. That way no one would talk to her. No one would ask questions. She was just able to throw her blond hair into a bun, tie up her slippers, and dance. Then, no one could see her guard come down and let the emotions run free. The ones that had, and would always be building up inside her each day without word from him. No one would see the sadness and depression that wrapped itself seamlessly into her dance. This was her release.

Gentle piano music played in the background as she went about her routine. Spins, jumps, everything and anything, whatever she felt like doing, her body did. Her teacher happened upon her during one of these secret sessions and begged that she perform solo at the school's next recital. While this was a great offer, she denied. She never wanted anyone to see this except him. She danced for him. All the moves that came from her were inspired by him and the absence he left behind. Something that she did not want anyone to know.

Her arms moved gracefully through the air, seeming like they were painting a picture, a love that she had to give up. Every time she would go to paint or even sketch, despite focusing on something different each time, there always would be those eyes staring back at her. His eyes. Bright blue and piercing, she couldn't bare see them anymore, seeing only copies and pictures while the real ones burn vividly in her memory. So she gave up her love of art and only focused on dancing, perfecting her technique and beginning her quiet sessions alone.

Glancing in the mirror in the room, to see how her posture was, she saw that the door to the room was ajar and someone was looking in. Another person had found her. She sighed mentally to herself. She would have to find a new room next time she wanted to be alone. It was then she realized the music had stopped, her cue to leave. She had let out enough emotion for today, and there would always be more the next time. She pulled her hair out of its bun, grabbed her CD and other belongings and swiftly left the room.

The intruder was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. There was something familiar about his face, but she was sure that she had never met him before, nor did she have any interest in meeting him. She walked past him without a glance, slipping back into the non-emotional mask she 

wore ever since he left. She reached the elevator and pressed the button to call it. Of course, as the little screen next to the call button told her, it was on the bottom floor while she was on the 5th. She hiked her bag higher on the shoulder with a sigh as she waited for the elevator.

She heard him coming before he even took a step. Taking in deep breath, he pushed himself off the wall and walked over to stand next her, waiting as well. The typical awkward silence followed. She stared at the floor to show she wasn't interested in conversation, though as she glanced up at one point to only find him smiling at her. Their eyes locked and her heart stopped. His eyes were the same ones that haunted her. That blue, that rare piercing blue. But they couldn't be…No..they weren't…. he wasn't…No he wasn't. She glanced away quickly, her face reddening and her eyes beginning to burn with tears.

The elevator arrived with a Bing! and opened. She wiped her eyes and stepped in. He followed and pressed the button for the ground floor. The elevator began to move downwards and the silence was very welcome. So many thoughts were racing through her head as she tried to stop the tears from coming. But her thoughts were interrupted as he broke the silence.

"You, uh. You dance very beautifully"

Gathering as much composure as she could, she muttered out a quiet, feeble thank you, which he took as a cue to continue talking, much to her dismay. She simply wanted to get home. She did not want to think about this familiar looking man and his eyes, nonetheless talk to him. There was one thing she wanted to get her hands on. Tonight, she decided, was the night to finish it. But he did not know this and continued to talk.

"Look, you may not know me, and though this is weird, but I know you" Oh great, she thought to herself, a stalker. She inched her body a little further to the opposite side of the elevator. She only had one more floor to go. She could make it, hopefully.

"My name's Sora and I have something important that I promised to pass ont-Hey! Wait! Please Wait!!" Sora yelled after her as she quickly exited the elevator. She was quite nimble and quickened her pace she heard him hurry to follow her. She was on a mission to get back home and not too worried about her pursuer. Sora would give up eventually, just as he did those few years ago.

She turned a corner and ducked down a small, dark alleyway she knew all too well, and jogged through it, disappearing into the darkness. B y the time Sora made it around the corner, he had lost her. Letting out a frustrated sigh, his hand found his face.

"This whole situation is stupid. Don't you realize that he has…. And that he sent me to.…Urgh" Kicking a wall, he turned around and went back to the school.

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She finally reached home. She dropped her bag as soon as she walked into her apartment, only to find that she never took her ballet slippers off and they were now ruined. But that didn't matter, she 

unlaced them and padded barefoot over to her desk where a pile of paper sat. The words on the various sheets of paper had been a long time coming and endlessly revised. She sat down Indian style on the chair in front of the desk, turned over a page that was half-full and began to write. Everything that she had struggled with writing before, all just came flowing onto the paper. The anger, hatred, frustration, the sadness, depression, every emotion she felt over the past years was finally released.

The tears that had started slow at first now were falling at steady rate. But that wasn't stopping her. She hadn't got to the most important part yet. The most important, and yet, the worst of them all. It was the fact that even though he had cause her all this pain, she still loved him and hoped that he would one day return. They hadn't left on good terms. He was moving away and she was too upset to even say goodbye to him. When he tried to say goodbye to her, his words were kind, gentle, and sad. They seemed like a dream to her, or rather, a nightmare. So she just ran. She wanted away from the whole situation and forget about him and the pain she was in. He had followed her for a while, but then she looked back to see that he had stopped, that he had given up. She should have gone back, but she was too much of a coward to face her problems or the hurt that she would have gone through, even though she ended up having to deal with the hurt anyway. She tried many times writing to him or even calling him, but she stopped halfway through. He wrote her, but she threw out every letter that came…soon they didn't come any more. It killed her inside, but she knew that she had to keep on going and living. That's how her mask became to be.

By the time she was done, she had been sitting and writing for three hours and the tears had dried up on her cheeks. Brushing a lock of hair out of her face, she titled her multi-page letter '1000 words ' and signed her name at the bottom. She stood up and stretched, then placed the letter into an already addressed envelope and sealed it. Slipping on a pair of sandals and a zipper hoodie, she walked down to the mailbox outside her apartment building. She stood in front of the mailbox for at least 10 minutes before opening up the mailbox and gently sliding it in. She sighed, it was in fate's hands now, not hers.

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A month or so later, she was walking back from one of her dance classes, a bag in hand that contained a new sketch book, pencils, and some paints. She was going to try to get back into her passion of art. She missed it too much and was excited to get home and start when she noticed the moving truck in front of her building. She had forgotten that she had a new neighbor moving in next to her, her old one finally moving in with her fiancé. After climbing the stairs and placing all her things in her own apartment, she walked over to find a red-headed girl standing in front of the door.

"Um, hi! I live next door. Are you my new neighbor?" She smiled slightly. She had been to start to drop her mask, but it was one small step at a time. The girl smiled and shook her head.

" Nope! Sorry," the girl said with a smile, "I'm just here helping my boyfriend's cousin move in. Apparently he used to live around here, but then he moved away to the city where me and his cousin live. Though, something happened to him and he's been trying to move back here for the past year. " The girl held her hand out, "By the way I'm-"

"KAIRI!! WE NEED SOME HELP!!"

Kairi rolled her eyes, "I'm Kairi, but apparently I'm being paged" She shook Kairi's hand and told her that if they needed any help, just to knock on her door. Kairi nodded and disappeared down the steps to the booming voice calling her name. It was then that she realized that she didn't give Kairi her name. Or rather that she didn't really give anyone her name anymore, she just was. Except for when she had signed her name on the letter…Ugh, there went her six day streak of not thinking about it, back to the beginning once more.

She returned to her apartment and took out the new sketchbook she had just gotten and sat at her kitchen table and began to sketch. She didn't know what she was sketching, but she was just happy to be drawing once more. About a half hour later, she sat back and admired her sketch. It wasn't a pair of eyes, the ones that no longer haunted her, but it was picture of two people, only the sides of them, holding hands in the morning twilight as the sun began to rise. For her first sketch in a while, she laughed at how detailed it was, her hands must have missed drawing a lot more then she thought. A smile spread across her face as she signed the sketch and titled it, 'New Beginning'. A knock then came from her door.

"Um, is anyone home? I didn't get you name, but they guys went out for food and I was wondering if you'd like to give me some company while they're out…." She closed her sketch book, and walked over to her new neighbor's place, deciding that she would eventually like a new beginning for herself too.

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"So, my new neighbor's a guy right? Is he nice?" She asked Kairi as she placed some books on a new bookshelf for her neighbor.

"Mhm, he's just like his cousin, my boyfriend, only not as goofy. Friendly and very kind. You'll definitely get along fine." Kairi smiled at her while Kairi herself was organizing the kitchen. Going back to box of books, she picked up another book and something fell out of the inside cover. Kairi snorted,

"Yeah, he thinks he can hide things from me and Sora, but we're brighter then we look." She bent down to pick up the fallen object while pondering the name Sora. She'd had heard the name before, but she couldn't put her finger on where. The object turned out to a letter that was a few pages and seemed to be read more than a few times. Curiosity getting the better of her, and the fact that maybe it could be….She began to open the letter when Sora walked in.

"Kairi! We're back with- Hey! It's you!" Sora yelled as he walked into the apartment, and then she realized that Sora was the guy who had caught her during her personal dance time. Her face slightly reddened when she remembered how rude she was to him. "What are YOU doing here?" he asked as he placed a few bags on an empty table.

"I, uh, I live next door…" Her hands clenched the letter out of embarrassment, "Look, I don't know if you remember or not, but over a month ago, when we sorta met, though only you introduced 

yourself….um, anyway, I was mean to you and was really rude. Please forgive me for that, I was not exactly in a good place then…" Her face reddened as she looked down at the letter in her hands.

"Is that his secret letter?!"Sora exclaimed pointing at the letter in her hands, completely ignoring the apology she just gave and then looked at Kairi with a huge grin, "This is going to be good…" Kairi looked confused as she looked at the letter, then her. Suddenly her eyes widened, like she was suddenly shocked.

"Oh My Gosh. What did you say your name was again? Oh wait; you didn't even say your name did you? What is it?" Kairi was suddenly hyper and excited and Sora laughed. But she was still fixated at the letter, she turned her back to the door and unfolded the letter. As her eyes skimmed the top page, one of her hands found its way to cover up her mouth. She then heard some footsteps and a voice.

"Hey guys, I was just grabbing some of the last few things so we wouldn't have…to…who's this?" It sounded the exactly the same. His voice. She recognized it in an instance, but she was too scared to turn around. Thankfully Sora answered his question.

"This is your new neighbor! She came over to help out Kairi put your stuff away while we were out. Go introduce yourself!" Sora's grin widened as he grabbed his cousin by the shoulder and pushed him toward her. The closer he got to her, the faster her heart began to race. She could feel his footsteps on the floor. Each one getting closer to her and she was almost shaking when he was only a few feet from her, even though her back to still to him and she still clutched her letter.

" Uh, Hi! I guess we're neighbors….this is slightly awkward this situation, and I was hoping to invite you over later when my apartment already set up..though you are doing that for me, haha..but oh well. Things don't always happen the way you want them too" Oh, she knew that definitely. Though she didn't turn around, he continued, "My name's-" He was cut off when she finished for him.

"Roxas. Your name is Roxas." She slowly turned around with her eyes closed, then gradually open them to meet those eyes. The real ones. Not a sketch or a painting, not a photograph, or even a relative whose were close. The real deal. It was him. He was shocked as she turned around and in disbelief asked one question:

" Namine?" She nodded and smiled, really smiled. He, Roxas, was back. She, Namine, could finally be back. She closed the space between them and reached up slowly to touch his cheek, to be sure if he was real. The tears were welling up in her eyes. He was here again, what she had wanted for so long finally happened. She smiled even more, loving the happiness that she had not felt in a very long time and hugged him. It was all real. He hugged her tight to him, then pulled away. It was then he saw the letter and took the letter from her hands, "I had been trying to move back for a while, but this….this letter sped the process so much. I've miss you so much and I'm so sorry…I didn't realize and if I hadn't had to catch a plane that day all those years ago, I would have ran after you the entire day. And then the stupid fight and-" Namine covered his mouth with one finger and just shook her head.

"No more apologies. No more explanations. You're back, that's all I care about, all you should care about and that's all that matters." And with that she reached up and pulled him down for a kiss. Now this was the new beginning she wanted.

Oxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Hehe, I actually wrote this in 3 hours one night when I was just sitting on my bed talking to a friend of mine. It was funny because I was telling him how I don't really write a lot, and then usually give up half way through the story. But I kept giving him updates on how many words and pages I was on, and that I was freaked out since I actually liked something I wrote :P. Well, I have an idea for a second part to this, but I'm not sure if I will write it since it's as planned out as this one…yet. If you wanted it though, let me know!! Please Review!!

Neno


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